AP Concentration: The Scariest Monster

A piece for my AP Art Concentration, the theme of which is "the Beast Within." It's a focus on the unveiling of humanity's primal nature, exposed through lighting effects, shadow, and comparisons.

This piece was actually inspired by a book that my mom read to me as a child. I don't remember what it was called, but it was about a contest in a world of monsters (a world similar to that in Monsters, Inc.) to see who could be the scariest. All sorts of monsters participated - big fuzzy ones, ones with too many eyes, ones who had terrible roars or faces - but at the end of the line waited a very small, young monster with a bag on his head. All of the other contestants jeered at him, but then he got up on the stage and took the bag off. He was wearing a mask that looked like a human face, and he scared the bejeesus out of every monster in the building. Needless to say, he won the contest, and I never understood how deep the concept is until recently. The true monster isn't the one that appears different from what we're accustomed to - it's the one that reside within ourselves as people.

Done in Prismacolor colored pencil.

Art (c) me